'This Week' Transcript: Tax Deal

WASHINGTON, Dec 5, 2010

Page 3 of 17

AMANPOUR: Do you think it's -- I want to know what the strategy
is. You heard -- you saw the -- the funny we had up there, Jay Leno
saying the left is going -- the liberals are going left, the
conservatives are going right, and everybody else is going through the
middle. Is this a strategy? Is the president ditching the liberal
base? Is he trying to be pragmatic? What is happening here?

AXELROD: First of all, I think we should be less focused on the
political equations here and more on the economic equations.

AMANPOUR: Well, I just want to ask you about the pragmatism here.

AXELROD: And that's what we're doing -- but this is -- this is
important, because the president's focus was one, which is, what do we
do to keep this economy moving forward? What do we do to make sure that
middle-class people in this country do not see their taxes go up?

And what we got here was a package that prevented their taxes from
going up and added additional tax cuts that are going to make a
difference for them and the economy. And that is -- and that's a win
for the American people.

AMANPOUR: OK, but clearly he hasn't been able to convince them,
because they're still, as they say, mad as hell, and he had to bring in
President -- former President Bill Clinton into the White House..

AXELROD: When you say "them," you're talking about members of
Congress?

AMANPOUR: Yes.

AXELROD: Because the one public poll I saw showed very, very strong
support for this compromise.

AMANPOUR: But still...

AXELROD: The American people count, too.

AXELROD: Of course, they do, but he had to bring into the briefing
room, presumably to speak to the American people, the former president,
Bill Clinton. And let's just put out what he said at the briefing room
just this weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

B. CLINTON: The agreement taken as a whole is, I believe, the best
bipartisan agreement we can reach to help the largest number of
Americans and to maximize the chances that the economic recovery will
accelerate and create more jobs and to minimize the chances that it will
slip back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AMANPOUR: So that's pretty succinct. I mean, don't really like it,
but this is the reason to have to do it. Do you think the president --
he's got many tools at his disposal. He's commander-in-chief. He's all
sorts of things, including he owns the bully pulpit. Do you think he's
using it in the way that he needs to, to sell these programs?

AXELROD: Oh, I think that he's been very -- he's been out there
every day this week doing that, and I think that's one of the reasons
why there's strong public support for it. So, yes, I think he has.

AMANPOUR: Let me talk about the stakes. Your outgoing top economic
adviser, Larry Summers, he caused quite a stir this week, and said if
this deal didn't pass, then the United States is headed for a double-dip
recession.

AXELROD: Well, that's not quite what he said. I was there when he
spoke. He said it would raise the possibility -- materially raise the
possibility of a...